production
After the delivery of the fermented cocoa beans to Germany some steps of processing are necessary to produce a fine shokomonk bar.
Roasting
Roasting is one of the most important steps of cocoa processing. The process causes more than 400 flavours to develop their full potential. Before the roasting stones, wood and metal pieces have to be removed. The beans are roasted for 15 to 60 minutes at temperatures of 100 to 140 centigrade – depending on the kind of beans and the parameters of the roast master. Additional to the development of the flavours the reduction of moisture and the better peelability are positive effects of the roasting.
Breaking/peeling
To peel the cocoa beans they are broken in a roller grinder. After this procedure cocoanibs and peel remain. The lighter peels are blown or sucked from the cocoa by an airstream.
GrindingThe grinder destroys the cellular tissue of the cocoa by rotating rolls. The cocoa butter is released due to the grinding heat and flows around the smaller cocoa pieces. In this way the cocoanibs become a liquid mass that resembles a lot the later chocolate.
Fine grinding
The cocoa pieces have to be really small so that the chocolate later does not leave a sandy feeling in the mouth. They have to be grinded to a size of less than 0,003 millimetres. The pieces are pressed through a smaller and smaller space between two rolls until a fine and soft chocolate powder is generated. The cocoa butter that at first surrounded the pieces melted down with them again.
Conching
The chocolate powder is heated up to 90 degree during the conching and is constantly stirred. The goal of the conching is to get a smooth fluid as a base for good chocolate. In the process of conching the cocoa butter parts from the cocoa pieces and surrounds them. The heat and the constant contact to oxygen reduce the moisture level of the chocolate. In the end, only about 1% of moisture is left. Another positive effect of the conching is that unwanted flavours are removed.
In the past it took 72 to 90 hours of conching to get a satisfactory result. Today’s conches only need up to 48 hours to achieve a very good result. If a manufacturer today still talks of a conching time of 72 hours or more he either uses old-fashioned machines or wants to stress the time factor in his advertising strategy. Large scale chocolate industry often conches only for 14 hours at the most and uses certain agents to get the chocolate smooth. In this way, the chocolate is delicate, but the flavour suffers.
Casting
After the conching the chocolate is almost ready to be cast in its final form. It cools down from 50 to 30-35 degree. Then it can be cast in certain form or used as chocolate coating.
